Dan Ness and Sam Prokop make their livings outside of the kitchen: Ness with an oilfield service company and Prokop with a software development firm. But about this time every year for the past eight years, someone walks up to them and asks, "So where is your restaurant?"

STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN MCCUSKERDan Ness and Sam Prokop are well known for their "Moules Frites" (mussels and fries), which they serve at the annual Fete Franaise, fundraiser for Ecole Bilinguel.

They don't have a restaurant. They have a booth. The two men are fixtures at Fete Francaise, the Ecole Bilingue school's annual fundraiser, where the two dads -- or the Deux Papas, as they are known on the campus of the French immersion school -- fit right in among some of the area's finest professional chefs. Their signature dish, mussels and fries, is among the festival's favorites.

Prokop, a native of France who learned his cooking skills in the kitchen of his grandmother in Nantes, says that moules frites -- the French name for the combination of mussels and fries -- is a traditional dish in France and one that he grew up enjoying. He and his family members would collect fresh mussels at low tide, clean them, then enjoy a family meal together.

"It was something we would do every summer," he said. "We would wait for the tide to go out and then we would use a little rake and collect the mussels. After that we would sit for hours cleaning them with a knife or a wire brush to scrape off the barnacles, before my grandmother would cook them. It was a very social pastime."

Fete Francaise organizers first drafted Ness, a cooking enthusiast who informally caters events and serves food for business clients, to prepare the dish in 2000. Prokop joined the team three years ago when his son Luc enrolled at the school. Now his daughter Coco also attends.

"I had never cooked mussels before and I thought it would be easy, like boiling crawfish," said Ness, whose 10-year-old son Dante attends the school. "I had no idea."

As it turns out, the process is much more demanding than Ness ever imagined. It starts with finding the freshest mussels available.

"The best are from Nova Scotia where the water is cold," Ness said. "We have them shipped in."

Then there's the cleaning, a process not unlike what Prokop experienced as a child. What makes the work so grueling is that the mussels must be prepared in small batches.

"No more than 2 pounds at a time," Prokop explained. "Otherwise, you cannot shake the pan and roll the mussels to coat them with the wine and the seasonings while distributing the heat. And you must be very careful of the timing. When the shells open just a little bit, that is when you add the cream. Then when they open wider, they are done."

"Last year, we cooked 350 pounds of mussels," Ness said. "But we ran out anyway. This year, we are doubling that amount."

Prokop and Ness take turns, one preparing the french fries while the other cooks the mussels, then vice versa. Ness says the fries require the same close attention as the mussels.

"For the fries to get crispy, they need to be cut 3/8-inch thick and the canola oil has to be right at 350 degrees when you add them," he said. "We serve them with aioli and they have to be crispy to stand up to the sauce."

Prokop agreed that getting the fries right takes care.

"You have to watch the color and take them out of the oil when they are golden brown," he said. "If you do not pay attention, they will turn black very quickly."

All day long at the Fete, Prokop and Ness hold court at their booth surrounded by their cadre of volunteers and promoters. They banter while they cook, occasionally clanging pot lids together to attract a crowd while extoling the virtues of moules frites.

They have been known to sip a bit of wine while they work, too. Frying, serving, sipping, clanging -- all are part of the show.

However enjoyable the celebration, it is also exhausting. The heavy-lidded pan that the mussels cook in must be flipped several times per batch. And with more than 175 batches to cook, the process is hard on the back and arms.

"When the Fete is over and it's time to clean up, we are dead on our feet and always need help," Ness said. "But by then, most of our friends have had too much wine and have already left."

Other than at Fete Francaise, the two men don't cook together, though both say they cook regularly.

STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN MCCUSKER"Last year, we cooked 350 pounds of mussels," Dan Ness said. "But we ran out anyway. This year, we are doubling that amount."

"I am definitely the cook in my house," said Prokop, whose wife Michelle is chairing the fundraiser this year. "It is always something a little different. Maybe boeuf carottes, maybe another dish I grew up with. If it is something special, I will use a recipe. But what I most enjoy is to be inventive with whatever I find in the refrigerator."

Ness says his wife, Leslie Bertucci-Ness, cooks most of the meals in his household.

"My wife is an excellent cook," he said. "But we have different ways of doings things in the kitchen. It's probably better I don't cook much at home because she would be telling me I should do things her way."

Ness satisfies his passion for cooking by preparing food for his clients. He now owns two trailers filled with professional cooking equipment ideally suited to preparing jambalaya and boiled crawfish.

The mussel recipe that Ness and Prokop prepare for the Fete Francaise is just one version of the traditional dish. The Deux Papas acknowledge that there are as many ways of cooking mussels as there are families in France, rather like the local tradition of red beans and rice. For the mussels, one recipe may have garlic, another fresh tomato.

Ness says a competition was staged several years ago to choose the version of moules frites that would be served at the Fete.

"We had all of the French teachers at the school taste different versions of moules mariniere from restaurants around town until they agreed on the one they liked best," Ness said. "That's the taste we decided to go for."

This year, the men are debating whether to add roasted garlic and chopped tomato to the sauce, something they experimented with recently.

"It adds a little something," Prokop said.

"A sweetness," Ness remarked.

Whatever the exact ingredients they use on Saturday, Ness and Prokop can count on an appreciative audience for their wares. But now they know better than to send their admirers searching for a restaurant that doesn't exist.

"I used to joke that it was on Magazine Street," said Ness. "But I was mortified when someone told me one year, 'I drove all up and down Magazine Street looking for your place, but I never could find it. Where exactly did you say it is?'

"I learned my lesson about that."

STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN MCCUSKERTOUGH WORK: The heavy-lidded pan that the mussels cook in must be flipped several times per batch. And with more than 175 batches to cook, the process is hard on the back and arms.

If asked where to get the highly vaunted moules frites, Ness said he will simply tell his fans they must return to the Fete next year.

Sam Prokop, the French native who is half of the Deux Papas team, shared this recipe from his grandmother -- his Mamee. He was born in Nantes, in the heart of the Muscadet wine region, and this is the only wine his grandmother ever used to make this recipe.

Clean the mussels really well, Prokop says, since the cooking liquid is going to form the "bouillon" which will be a delight to dip your French baguette in. A little grit at the bottom of the dish is always inevitable, but clean them as best you can and rinse them a few extra times to make them as grit-free as possible.

Prokop also shared a handy tip: "My grandmother always uses an empty mussel shell as sort of a tool to grab the mussels out of their shell to eat them."

Moules marinieres au Muscadet Makes 4 servings

4 ½ pounds mussels

2 onions, diced

4 or 5 garlic cloves

4 tablespoons chopped parsley

7 ounces Muscadet wine

5 ounces water

A few tablespoons of creme fraiche

1 ½ ounces salted butter

Salt and pepper

Scrub mussels well. Rinse several times.

Put the onions in a large skillet (which has a lid) with half the butter and wilt them for a minute or two. Add the garlic, most of the parsley (reserving some as a garnish), the wine and the water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Then bring the liquid up to a fast boil again and put in the mussels. Put the lid on the pan for a few minutes; shake the pan (shake it like you mean it!). Lift the lid and make sure all the mussels have opened and toss out the few that have not, as these will not be good ones (think of crawfish with straight tails after the boil).

Whisk in the remaining butter; adjust the seasoning and stir in the creme fraiche. Cover the pan again and give it a couple more shakes.

Pour the mussels and the liquid into a large bowl, garnish with the remaining parsley, and serve with a side of french fries and a good bottle of Muscadet.

Bon Appetit!

There are several components to Cochon's ribs, but they are well worth the time, says chef and co-owner Stephen Stryjewski. The recipe is scaled for 4 racks of ribs and can easily be adjusted for larger batches, as can the rib rub. The barbecue sauce will yield about three cups, more than enough for two or three batches of ribs.

Buy full racks or babyback rib. At Cochon, the ribs are smoked for 4 ½ hours in a specialized smoker, but at home, Stryjewski says, he finds it easier to cook them in the oven and finish them on the grill. And it's worth the effort to remove the membrane from the ribs, since it never really breaks down.

Cochon's ribs Makes 4 to 6 servings

4 racks pork ribs

1 batch rib rub (recipe follows)

½ cup chicken stock

1 clove garlic, chopped

1tablespoon honey

Barbecue sauce (recipe follows)

Watermelon pickles, diced

Prepare the ribs by removing the thin membrane from the bone side of the rack. A dry dish towel, fingernails and patience are the best aids in this. Start in a corner and scrap the bone until the membrane starts to lift up, then grab it with a dish towel and peel it off. The membrane can also be scored by running a knife along the bones. This prevents the ribs from curling up.

Liberally apply the rib rub to the ribs and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Remove the ribs and shake off any excess rub and juice that has accumulated. Do not rinse.

Lay 2 racks of ribs on a length of aluminum foil long enough to wrap and seal them. Repeat with the other racks.

Combine the chicken stock, garlic and honey and bring to a simmer. Pour half of the mixture into each package and seal. Cook the packages on a cookie sheet in a 275-degree oven for 2½ to 3 hours, or until the meat easily pulls away from the bone. Cool until ready to use, or grill immediately.

Grill the ribs until hot over a medium-hot fire. Apply an even layer of barbecue sauce to the ribs and allow it to caramelize lightly.

Move the ribs to a serving platter and sprinkle a liberal amount of the watermelon pickles over the ribs. Don't skimp on the watermelon pickle: The idea is to offset the spicy barbecue sauce and compliment the meaty ribs. You should get some of each in every bite.

Seedless chile flakes impart more chile flavor and less heat. If you can't find smoked paprika, substitute regular paprika or leave it out all together.

Cochon's rib rub

Makes enough for 4 racks of ribs

2 cups brown sugar

¼ cup kosher salt

2 tablespoons ground dry mustard

1 tablespoon ground fennel

3 tablespoons ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cayenne

2 tablespoons seedless pepper flakes (available at Asian markets)

½ cup ground chile powder

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

At Cochon, this very spicy sauce is made particularly for the ribs, providing a counterpoint to the sweet watermelon pickles served with it. Compared to commercial sauce, it is fairly thin.

Cochon's barbecue sauce

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon dried thyme

¼ cup molasses

1 (10-ounce) jar of ketchup

1 cup cider vinegar

½ cup Louisiana style hot sauce

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

2 chipolte peppers (canned in adobo sauce), chopped

1 cup chicken stock

Salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large, heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent, then add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about a third.

The sauce may then be buzzed with an immersion (stick) blender for a smoother consistency. Cool and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.